Santa Clara, Calif. – Magellan today announced its exclusive BLADE™ technology, a proprietary GNSS processing solution that makes possible centimeter-level accuracy for real-time and post-processing surveys and mapping operations. Magellan’s BLADE (Base Line Accurate Determination Engine) uniquely combines ranging and carrier phase data from two satellite systems, GPS and SBAS, for superior satellite coverage and signal reliability to enable rapid, centimeter-level solutions.
Magellan’s BLADE is the first GNSS processing system that uses SBAS ranging and carrier phase measurements in the RTK data processing. These SBAS measurements, which are GPS-like, improve satellite geometry to allow centimeter-level accuracies to be achieved in a shorter time compared to GPS-only algorithms. Although other processing systems use the SBAS correction message to achieve sub-meter positioning, BLADE is the only GNSS processing using SBAS ranging and carrier phase data in the RTK computation.
"Technology leadership and innovation are essential assets in the navigation and positioning markets," said Robert Snow, Magellan’s product marketing director of GNSS boards and technology. "Magellan introduced the first marine receiver and the first integrated differential receiver in the mid 1980s. We were the first to develop GPS+GLONASS receivers and the first to work on early development of Galileo receivers. And now with this technology that speeds time to accuracy in a cost-effective manner, we are building on a legacy of developing technologies that can truly change the day-to-day business of our customers."
BLADE processing is designed to provide rapid initialization. Initialization times will vary depending on SBAS availability and sky conditions. For example, the addition of one SBAS satellite improves the time to ambiguity resolution by 50%, and the addition of two SBAS satellites improves this time by 75%. In open-sky environments the time to reach centimeter-level accuracy is almost always less than one minute when two SBAS satellites are in common view.
DG14 RTK™, Magellan’s cost-effective single-frequency RTK application for the DG14 receiver – also announced today — uses BLADE technology to provide fixed centimeter and fast decimeter solutions to demanding high-precision applications for machine control, agriculture, aviation, military, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), robotics, marine survey and navigation.
BLADE is also a key enabling technology in the recently introduced ProMark3 RTK, which outperforms single-frequency GPS-only RTK receivers and grants real-time performance in a lightweight handheld system. BLADE is the technology within ProMark3 RTK that drives rapid initialization, reliability and real-time centimeter-level accuracy to make the ProMark3 RTK a new reference for RTK surveying.
About Magellan
Magellan is a leader in the consumer, survey, GIS and OEM GNSS navigation and positioning markets. Recognized as an industry innovator, the Company is the creator of ProMark™, the best-selling single frequency GPS survey product line on the market, the award-winning Magellan(R) RoadMate™ series portable car navigation systems, and the Hertz NeverLost(R) car navigation system. The Company markets it survey and GIS solutions worldwide under its Magellan Professional brand. It is privately held and headquartered in Santa Clara, California with European headquarters in Carquefou, France.